Viruses and Virus Software

As I spoke with my in-laws last weekend about viruses and anti-virus software makers, they voiced a thought everyone has had at one time or another- perhaps the viruses from Norton and McAfee. After all, why would you spend $40 a year to keep your computer safe if there weren’t any viruses? As I explained to them that, actually, most viruses nowadays come from Organized Crime in an attempt to steal identities, I thought about the fiasco it would be for such a thing to occur. It would be like Microsoft purposely creating a virus for Linux.

But then I read this story and began to wonder if Norton and the others really had my best interest in mind. If they really ARE looking to protect me from spyware and all that crap they use to scare us into buying the products, why didn’t it catch the Sony malware? In the end it all comes down to money. Sony can afford to pay them to keep quiet about things and let the malware be installed. It certainly ISN’T about user convenience as Norton bothers me enough, asking about each and every program who wants to use an inbound or outbound port on my computer.